Ashes to Ashes
by K. A. Maples
Summary: Brooklyn deals with a tragedy in the making while Elisa thinks of a dead enemy. FINISHED!
1. Ashes to Ashes

Brooklyn let the currents of the air carry him far above the petty confusion of the humans on the street below. It was so quiet up here, above the noise of the humans. It was positively peaceful... not like the castle. The castle seemed to get more and more noisy every night, with growing Alexander running around everywhere... and with Broadway and Angela fussing over their egg like it was the most important thing in the universe. The very thought made him snort in disgust.

He almost didn't see the woman, hidden as she was in the shadows of the roof of the building. In fact, he might never have noticed her if she hadn't stepped out onto the ledge.

She wasn't pretty, not in the conventional sense. She was swarthy, with straight black hair that seemed to be little more than a collection of split ends. From Brooklyn's vantagepoint, he could see the beginnings of gray streaks in that hair. Her dress was a pale yellow that made her look slightly jaundiced. It whipped around her thin legs like it was trying to pull her over the side of the building. She wore no shoes on her feet, and shivered as the wind cut through the thin dress like a knife. She spread her arms wide and tilted forward, seeming to move in slow motion. She began to fall, her hair whipping behind her.

Brooklyn didn't even think about it. He just swooped and snatched the woman up in his arms, spreading his wings wide as he headed for higher ground. Surprisingly, she didn't make so much as the slightest noise of protest. She didn't even shift in his arms as he held her close. She smelled of stale sweat and cheap perfume. "It's alright, miss." Brooklyn whispered, trying to be soothing. Normally this was the kind of thing he'd have let Lexington or Angela handle, but they weren't there. "Whatever it is, it's not worth your life. Nothing is worth throwing your life away." They were words he'd practiced and used far too often for his liking.

"They killed my baby brother." The woman's words were almost torn away from them by the wind, but Brooklyn had long practice with catching words on the air. He swooped down to a rooftop and set the woman on her feet, but she just crumbled into a broken heap like a rag doll and stared up at the sky.

"Who killed your brother?" the beaked gargoyle asked, crouching beside the woman and trying to look as non-threatening as possible. No small feat for a brick red gargoyle with a beak.

She didn't turn to look at him. It was like he didn't even exist for her at all. Her eyes were black and reddened from tears; the pupils dilated from the drugs Brooklyn suspected were coursing through her system. "The cops. The jails." she whispered finally. "They killed my little Tony." Her whole body convulsed, and she released a petulant cry of pain and sorrow that seemed as though it might shatter the stars themselves.

Brooklyn rolled her onto her side and pulled his cell phone free from its small hook on its belt, pressing the speed dial for emergency services. He couldn't give the woman the kind of medical attention she needed. "Paramedics? I have an emergency..."

&&&&&&&

Elisa leaned against the turret and looked up at the night sky, Goliath beside her. "Another inmate slit Dracon's throat during lunch." she said without taking her eyes off the stars. "Over pudding, of all things. Of all the ways Dracon could have died... that has to have been the lamest."

"He was to be released soon, wasn't he?" Goliath said, his voice little more than a rumble deep within his chest.

"Yeah. He was going to go live with his sister Marian. I had to tell her." Elisa bit her lip.

"I didn't think it was possible to watch a soul die. But I think I did today."


	2. Dust to Dust

AN: Lookit! I've rewritten the story, fixing little errors (and bigger ones), and am in the middle of writing the next new chapter. Please note that I've combined Chapters 2 and 3 into one chapter. It just seems to work better this way, at least for me.

Brooklyn didn't like hospitals very much. The smell of the disinfectant stung his nose, and the healers (_Doctors,_ he corrected himself. _They're called doctors and nurses_.) always seemed too detached from the people they were supposed to be healing. Though that seemed to have become a blessing in this moment, since they seemed quiet willing to ignore the big red gargoyle in their midst so long as he didn't get in the way.

The fact that he'd used the credit card Xanatos had given him to pay the woman's bill had probably greased the wheels, but he didn't care to dwell on that. He chose to concentrate on the woman in the bed. She wasn't lovely, even on closer inspection. Her hair was coarse, like a horse's, and bore faint streaks of iron gray, though her body spoke of youth. She had hard lines around her mouth and across her forehead. A woman made old before her time. Her naturally dusky skin (a few shades lighter than Elisa's, he noted absently as he held her hand) did nothing to cover the pallor of illness. The one doctor that had been willing to speak to him had said that she had attempted to overdose on several 'sleep aids' and enough alcohol to put even Hudson in his cups.

This was a woman who had wanted very badly to die; not that Brooklyn was going to allow it. The woman's eyes fluttered open for a moment before settling into a half-lidded blank stare. Her eyes were as dark as her hair, and dull with drugs and pain. "Hi." the red gargoyle said softy. "Feeling better?"

She let out a gut wrenching sob, her whole body shaking. Brooklyn froze for a moment, his hand still holding hers. "Hey. Hey. Shhh... it's alright," he said, leaning forward to stroke her hair like he might a child's. "It's alright..." He didn't really know what else to say, and some gut instinct told him that it _wasn't_ alright. Something had to be very wrong to drive a woman to try and turn herself into a gooey smear on the pavement.

It seemed to be forever before she finally stopped crying. Her eyes were red and puffy as she lay back against the sheets. She didn't even seem to notice him. Brooklyn didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

(break)

Elisa flipped through the pages of the novel long file, looking at the pages but not really seeing. She'd typed half the reports herself, and she knew it backwards and forwards. The name was printed in black block letters across the tab. **_Dracon, Antoney Michael_**. There was an exact copy of it still at the station house, and a digital one on the computers. This was the copy that Elisa would take home with her to pore over. This was the copy with the coffee cup ring and the pizza stain. The one that smelled faintly of her mother's perfume. The one with her handwriting scribbled in the margins, complete with a little doodle of Dracon being hung upside down by his foot by Goliath while Elisa battered him with a baseball bat.

Wood smoke filled her nostrils, bringing her attention back to the here and now. Hudson looked up from the small fire he was building from fallen wood scavenged from Central Park. "'Tis almost ready, lass." he said, giving the fledgling flame a slight prod with a stick.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Elisa?" Goliath asked softly, one hand resting gently on the detective's shoulder.

"Yeah, Big Guy. I need to do this. Get the bastard out of my system once and for all." She stepped up to the fire as it began to leap and dance, then tossed the first page of the file onto the flames. It caught almost before it hit the wood, burning cheerfully and filling Elisa's nose with the acidic stench of burning paper and ink. The second page joined it not long after, then the third, then the fourth... each one adding the flames, which burned away Tony Dracon's life into nothing more than fine gray ash.

The fire wavered and danced away as one of the clan came in for a landing. A quick glance up revealed a dour looking Brooklyn, who caped his wings and ran a hand through his messy main before approaching. "What's up?" he asked, his voice unusually subdued.

"Just getting rid of some bad memories." Elisa said, holding up one of the pictures of Dracon from the file before tossing it into the flames. It burned slower than the paper, and the stench from it was almost unbearable.

"Dracon was murdered by a fellow inmate." Goliath explained as Elisa dumped more pictures of Tony into the flames. Some were mug shots, but most were candids taken by the cops assigned to trail him. Pictures of Dracon doing those everyday things that people do... it was so hard for Elisa to think of Tony as _people_. He'd been a monster. A gunrunner, putting weapons in the hands of those who would do harm. A drug pusher, poisoning the youth of the city. He deserved everything he'd got.

But she still couldn't block out that look in Marian Dracon's eyes. That look would likely haunt her dreams for several nights.

But Elisa was done with the Dracons. Marian and Dominic were all that was left, and Dominic was too old to cause much trouble. And Marian... she'd never gotten so much as a traffic ticket. For the daughter of an old Mob family, she was surprisingly boring. The poor bastards who'd been assigned to keep tabs on the Dracons had spent many an hour observing the older sister of Tony, and come to that conclusion long ago. The only thing that had made her the least bit dangerous was her seeming unwavering loyalty to her older brother. She'd visited him every week he was in prison. She'd been so happy when the parole board announced that they were letting him out.

And Elisa had destroyed her world.

"Hey!" Brooklyn snatched the picture Elisa had been about to toss out of her hand. "I know this woman!" he looked up from the picture to Elisa, then turned it to face the detective. "She tried to take a swan dive off a building tonight. Who... who is she?"


	3. Moth to a Flame

Brooklyn sat on the ledge outside of the apartment, one leg dangling over the side as he looked into the window. They'd released Marian from the hospital during the day (at her lawyer's insistence), and he'd had to ask Elisa for her address. He wanted to assure himself that she wasn't going to try and take another nosedive off a building. He was still trying to process the idea that this woman in the flannel shirt was related to the bastard who had tried to hard to destroy the clan. Of course, he could see some resemblance... the prematurely graying hair, something in her nose... but still! She kept stuffed animals on her bed!

Right now she was sitting on a beaten up old couch; her legs tucked up under her chin, as she clutched a photograph. Brooklyn hadn't been able to see just what the picture was of, but he could guess. This was a woman in mourning, even if the man she was mourning didn't deserve it.

She didn't look like she'd brushed her hair, and the lack of smudging on her face made it clear she'd made no attempt to wear make-up. Brooklyn privately thought that most human women would look better without it anyway, but that was just him.

He watched Marian put the picture on the table and stand up, pushing wild black hair off her face. She retreated to the bedroom, and Brooklyn followed, still out on the ledge. She liked stuffed bears; they littered her bed and dresser like a plush menagerie. She flung herself upon the bed, her arms spread wide as she looked up at the ceiling. He watched her lay there amongst the cheerful stuffed toys. He could almost feel her despair rolling off her in waves.

Brooklyn raised his hand, pressing it to the window. The glass was cool to his touch. That was when his cell phone decided it was time to make its presence known again, and Brooklyn ducked down onto the fire escape so Marian wouldn't notice. "What?" he said, trying to keep the worst of his irritation out of his voice.

"Just seeing where you were, bro." Lexington said on the other end. "It's an hour till sunup, and we were starting to worry." The green gargoyle's concern was evident in his voice.

Brooklyn sighed, ducking his head. "I'm on my way back, don't worry," he said, jumping up onto the railing. He flicked the cell phone off and put it back on his belt before spreading his wings wide and leaping off the rail. He caught an updraft and let it carry him towards the Aerie building. He never saw the window behind him open.


	4. And Ye Though I Walk Through the Vally P...

AN: Here's chapter 5, folks. Just a little bit later than I planned. If you all really want to show your appriciation, might I suggest joining my World of Gargoyles RPG (you can find the link in the Author's note of a pervious chapter). Yes folks, that is my subtle hint.

**Mariel** -- Obviously, I do plan on continuing this. As to if Brooklyn hooks up or not... wait and see.

**Doppleganger **-- You'll see Marian's reaction to Elisa very soon.

**Moe **-- What?

**Theresa -- **Thanks. I'm trying to show that there was more to Tony than we saw in the show... even if it does require his death.

**coincidental **-- Thank's for the praise. This story takes place about a year after the events of The Journey (I'm ignoring The Goliath Chronicals otherwise). Lets just pretend that the Gargoyles are slightly more accepted by society now... and that the doctors took a very large amount of money from the credit card.

"Ms. Maza?"

Elisa looked up from her much hated paperwork as the soft voice reached her ears. She was rather surprised to find herself looking at the emaciated form of Marian Dracon. A pale blue sun dress hung off her thin frame. Black eyes caught and held the detetive's, refusing to let them go. "You're on the Gargoyle Task Force." the woman said, her voice never rising above a soft whisper. "And Tony always said that you worked with them." Her eyes darted around quickly as Elisa sucked in a long breath. "Why are they following me? Did you tell them to?"

Elisa couldn't help but stare at the waif before her. She stood up and took the woman's arm, leading her to a quiet corner. "Unless you've given them some reason to, the Gargoyles wouldn't follow you." she said stiffly, glowering at Marian.

"Then why is the red one at my window every night?"

Elisa twitched. Why had she seen this coming? Oh yes, now she remembered. Brooklyn was a hopeless romantic of the highest order, with a natural talent for finding just the wrong women to fixate on. First Demona, then Maggie, then Angela... and now Marian Dracon. It was like some kind of plot to drive everyone insane. _Maybe I should look into getting him some therepy._ the detective thought. _This can't be healthy behavior._ "I wouldn't know." she said aloud. "And you shouldn't say things like that. Someone might hear you."

Marian looked Elisa up and down cooly before brushing past the detective. "Tell them to leave me alone. All I want is to be left alone."


	5. And Ye Though I Walk Through the Vally 2

_A/N: Finally, at long last, long after everyone had given up hope… and update! Please note that I've also made changes to the previous chapters, including combining what were once Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 into one longer chapter. If there's anyone interested, I'm looking for beta readers for Ashes to Ashes and my other Gargoyles story, _Legacies_, along with folk willing to take a look at the other stuff I have coming down the pipeline._

Brooklyn almost didn't see the gun, laying as it did on the coffee table.

He _did_ see Marian, looking very serious and the most put together he'd ever seen her in a simple black pants suit. She was even wearing make up, he noted. He found himself wondering what had happened today.

All such thoughts were quickly pushed out of the gargoyle's mind as he saw the dull gray weapon come to Marian's hand and raise slowly and deliberately. She was looking _right at him._

And she was very, very angry.

He couldn't hear her through the glass, but the words she mouthed at him were clear enough. "Go away, or I will shoot you."

'_You know,'_ Brooklyn thought, '_they really shouldn't let potential suicides have guns.'_

He released his hold on the ledge and let himself fall back into the open air. He was strong, and he was tough, but he wasn't bulletproof, and he wasn't willing to test how serious the woman was about her threat. '_What did I do?'_ He wondered as he circled the building. _'I just wanted to help.'_


	6. Revelations

_Author's Note:_

_At the moment I am doing the dance of joy._

_Why?_

_Because the wonderful BrooksBabe has agreed to be my test vict- beta reader! So, everyone be extra nice to her, because I'm going to make her as crazy as I am before I'm done._

_Also, I am overjoyed because… Kimberly Towle likes my story:dies of happiness:_

_So, here's chapter 6, which definitively answers the question of if Marian and Brooklyn will be getting together._

Generally speaking, Brooklyn was considered a reasonably intelligent biped. Most everyone who knew him agreed on this fact. They also agreed that he could be considered pretty damn stupid when it came to his urge to protect females. Elisa had termed it 'Knight in Shining Armor Syndrome'.

He was suffering from a rather nasty case of it right now.

In spite of the fact that she had threatened to shoot him, Brooklyn was perched on the ledge outside Marian Drakon's apartment once again.

Clearly, it had been a bad day for the woman. She sat on her couch, clutching one of the teddy bears tightly and sobbing. His heart ached with the need to go in there and comfort her. However, Brooklyn's woman-related stupidity only went so far. He had no desire to end up full of holes.

Marian was so immersed on her misery -- and Brooklyn so intent on Marian – that someone knocking on the door startled them both into jumping. The gargoyle might have found Marian's startlement funny if he hadn't had to scrabble to keep from falling off the building.

Brooklyn was still regaining his balance as Marian opened the door, admitting a soberly dressed woman with dishwater blond hair. "I came as soon as I heard. God, Mari, how could you be so _stupid?_" The blond said, talking into the apartment. "What where you thinking!"

Brooklyn watched Marian stare at the blond, letting the door swing shut on its own. She looked like she was going to burst into tears again.

"Oh Mari…" the woman sighed. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here." She gathered the dark haired woman into a hug, stroking her hair. Brooklyn couldn't hear what else she said to Marian, but in a strange way, it gave _him_ some comfort.

There was someone else watching out for Marian. She wasn't alone.

Brooklyn was considering leaving when Marian kissed the blond.

Gargoyles, as a general rule, didn't kiss. Not with so many like Brooklyn who was, frankly, not equipped to do so. So Brooklyn would have been the first to admit that he didn't know much about it.

But he did knot that _that_ was not how friends kiss.

The gargoyle abandoned his perch, giving the women their privacy and feeling faintly embarrassed.

He didn't see the light reflecting off the lenses in their black plastic frames.

* * *

"Astrid's back in town, so its not just the gargoyle watching her now." 

"Good. She needs someone around all the time. Mari's always been… fragile.

"Still…"

"She's a good girl. She'll be better off this way."

"Yes, boss."


	7. Lazarus

_A/N: Just for the record, I suck at action sequences. Many thanks to Brooksbabe for beta-ing, and to all my reviewers! I love you all so much!_

**Chapter 7: Lazarus**

Elisa stood to the side of the door, gun drawn, and nodded to Matt. "On three," she said into the microphone connected to Goliath's receiver. "One. Two. Three!"

Matt kicked the door in, and the gargoyles came crashing through the skylight. Good old shock and awe tactics. Never failed to send the bad guys running. Matt called it 'Pulling a Batman'. Elisa wasn't sure what he meant by that, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know either. Just as long as it worked.

The thugs, the remnants of Dracon's gang, scattered like pidgins before a cat.

The gargoyles scattered themselves, taking up the chase.

Brooklyn had been following Glasses for the past several minutes, intent on bringing the man down.

A little too intent, unfortunately.

He didn't see the crates falling until it was too late.

"Hn. Not dead yet, I see. I suppose that's something else we have in common."

Brooklyn's eyes snapped open, and he growled as he struggled against the chains binding him. His eyes locked on his tormentor and his jaw dropped. The very much not dead Tony Dracon smirked at him, arms folded across his chest. Anyone looking at him could see he had gotten the looks in the family, with fine patrician features and the kind of wavy hair most women would kill for.

The very not dead Tony Dracon put his fingers under Brooklyn's beak and closed it. "You know, I was hoping it would be you we'd catch. You and I need to have a little chat."

"We have nothing to talk about." Brooklyn growled.

"_I_ think we do." Dracon reached into his shirt and pulled out a rather cheap looking locket. He held it in his hand for a long time, just staring at it. "You know, Mari is probably the only decent human being my family has ever produced. No wonder she's crazy." He smirked, but there was a hint of sadness behind the expression.

"Your secret's gonna get out, you bastard. You _won't_ get away with this!"

"But I am." Dracon said. "You're getting off topic. _We_ are discussing my sister."

"What? You don't want to brag about your brilliant plan before you kill me?"

"Who said I was going to kill you? You're too useful to me alive. And no, I'm _not_ going to tell you my brilliant plan. That way, you can't mess it up. You see… I _learn_ from my mistakes. Now, back to the real topic at hand…"

"She tried to _kill_ herself because of you! She's the only person in the whole damn world who really cares about you, and you're _hurting_ her."

For a moment, Dracon's smirking mask broke, and Brooklyn saw the pain and worry beneath. "She's better off with me dead," he said, playing with the locket. "She's a good woman and with me gone, she can finally get a little peace. At least… as long as everyone thinks I'm dead."

"That. Is. Low." Brooklyn snarled.

"Yup. I'm scum." Dracon said cheerfully. "But you're gonna go along with me on this."

"What the hell makes you think that?"

"Call it an instinct. Something tells me that anyone who'd risk getting shot to check up on a crazy lady would keep something like this under his hat." Dracon stretched his hands above his head with a sigh. "As long as everyone thinks I'm dead, she's _safe_ from anyone who would try to use her against me. And you wouldn't put Mari in danger."

Glasses stuck his head into the room. "Hey boss. Time to dump the Shemp."

"Thanks." Dracon reached behind him and pulled out a sponge that gave off a sickly sweet odour. "Glad we could have this little talk," he said, pressing the sponge to Brooklyn's nostrils and forcing his beak to stay shut. The gangster leaned in close, so his mouth was almost touching Brooklyn's ear. "She likes shlocky B horror movies," he murmured before Brooklyn passed out.


	8. Solomon

**Chapter 8: Solomon**

Brooklyn perched on the ledge, feeling uncertain. It had been three days since Dracon had disappeared, and this was his first time checking on Marian since then. Hesitantly, he tapped a talon on the window and tried to think of what he would say.

'_Hi Marian. You'll never guess who I saw the other day…'_

The Dracon woman opened the curtains and window with a supremely irritated look on her face. "I thought I told you-"

Brooklyn held up his hard won DVD of _The Abominable Dr. Phebes._ "I thought we should start over," he said. "I'm Brooklyn. Would you like to watch this with me?"

Marian thought for a long moment, and then stood aside. "I'm Marian. It's nice to meet you."

Brooklyn climbed inside the apartment. "What happened to the gun?" he asked hesitantly.

"My girlfriend made me get rid of it."

'_Thank you, Miss Astrid.'_ Brooklyn thought. "Ah. I'm… I'm sorry about your brother."

Marian stopped in her tracks, halfway to the DVD player, her expression very strange. "Thank you," she said softly.

**The End**


End file.
